For today’s SLS Jim has asked us to share a ‘yacht rock’ song, at the suggestion of John Holton, as you can see in his post Smooth Rock. My first port of call (see what I did there?) was Google, as I had no idea what this was. Unsurprisingly, it is described in terms that make it very much an American thing, and the huge list of acts that typified it contained very few British bands, though it did have loads I’d never heard of. And you guys wonder why we think you’re insular! From Wikipedia: “yacht rock (originally known as the West Coast sound or adult-oriented rock is a broad music style and aesthetic commonly associated with soft rock, one of the most commercially successful genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Drawing on sources such as smooth soul, smooth jazz,R&B, and disco….” You can see why I feared the worst, can’t you, but amongst the long list of bands, some of whom seemed to me to be unfairly classed this way, was one which I absolutely loved back in the day, and still do. All was saved – I could actually write something for today and play you a song which rose way above what many of the proponents of this ‘genre’ gave us. So here is my offering, from one of the best bands ever:
And the lyrics:
Felonius my old friend
Step on in and let me shake your hand
So glad that you’re here again
For one more time
Let your madness run with mine
Streets still unseen we’ll find somehow
No time is better than now
Tell me where are you driving
Midnight cruiser
Where is your bounty
Of fortune and fame
I am another
Gentlemen loser
Drive me to Harlem
Or somewhere the same
The world that we used to know
People tell me it don’t turn no more
The places we used to go
Familiar faces that ain’t smilin’ like before
The time of our time has come and gone
I fear we been waiting too long
Tell me where are you driving
Midnight cruiser
Where is your bounty
Of fortune and fame
I am another
Gentlemen loser
Drive me to Harlem
Or somewhere the same
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Donald Jay Fagen / Walter Carl Becker
Midnite Cruiser lyrics © Royalty Network, Universal Music Publishing Group
How can something that good be included under a heading that Wikipedia tells us was applied as a pejorative name? Still, it has given me something to play today. I have played it before, but as that was in a Tuesday Tunes piece in 2020 I don’t think I’m overdoing it! This was a track on Steely Dan’s November 1972 debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, which formed a huge part of my university days, along with its follow ups, Countdown To Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic. The best known tracks on the first album are Do It Again and Reeling In The Years, both of which can be found on YouTube in live performances. But I decided to be perverse and choose my favourite track from a great album, though there are so many superb songs on it that choosing just one wasn’t easy. The album charted at #17 in the US and #38 here in the UK: I always felt it deserved better.
A final word. In case you didn’t realise it, my opening remarks are slightly tongue in cheek, and I know that there was a lot of good music released that fits into this category. I’m looking forward to seeing what others play, and keeping my fingers crossed that it is the good stuff. And maybe I’ll be introduced to some of those bands I’ve never heard of?
